Editor's note: This story was originally published in 1990.
Emmanuel F. Hammond was sentenced Friday night to die in the electric chair for killing Julie Love.
A Fulton County jury deliberated 4 1/2 hours before recommending the sentence, which was imposed by Superior Court Judge Ralph H. Hicks. It was the first death sentence imposed in Fulton since 1984.
Hammond was convicted Wednesday of the July 12, 1988, slaying of Miss Love, a 27-year-old children's fitness teacher abducted from a Buckhead street after her car ran out of gas.
She was raped, bound with coat hangers and ultimately killed by a shotgun blast fired by Hammond, a 24-year-old Marietta auto repairman.
"I'm very grateful to the jury, the prosecutor and the judge for what they did, and I feel that justice was done. It's a victory of sorts, but a very shallow victory, " said Jerry Love, the victim's father, before breaking into tears and walking away.
Hammond's mother, Doris Ervin, did not stay for the jury verdict. Defense attorney William A. Wehunt said she went to work "to get it off her mind."
A cousin of Hammond's, who would only identify himself as James, said of the sentence: "It wasn't right at all. It just wasn't right."
The case is automatically appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Hammond, whose IQ of 83, classifies him as "dull-normal, " was asked by Judge Hicks whether he had anything to say after the sentence was read. "No, sir, " he replied.
Hammond's cousin W. Maurice Porter and Hammond's ex-girlfriend, 34- year-old Janice Weldon, were the primary prosecution witnesses.
Porter, who pleaded guilty to the murder and rape in November and is awaiting sentence, said Hammond shot Miss Love once in the head in trash- strewn woods in northwest Atlanta.
Her body was found in August, when Ms. Weldon, a former stripper, told police where to look. She testified that she turned Hammond in because he had beaten her.
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